Trump renews call for death penalty for New York truck attack suspect
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By Gina Cherelus and Barbara Goldberg
NEW YORK, Nov 2 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday reiterated his call for the death penalty against the Uzbek immigrant accused of killing eight people by driving a truck down a popular Manhattan bike path in the deadliest act of suspected terrorism to strike New York City since Sept. 11, 2001.
Sayfullo Saipov, 29, was charged in federal court on Wednesday with acting in support of the militant group Islamic State by plowing the truck down a riverside bike trail, injuring a dozen people in addition to those killed.
Trump had suggested on Wednesday sending Saipov to the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba, where terrorism suspects apprehended overseas are incarcerated, but on Thursday he said doing so would be too complicated.
"Would love to send the NYC terrorist to Guantanamo but statistically that process takes much longer than going through the Federal system," Trump said on Twitter.
He added: "There is also something appropriate about keeping him in the home of the horrible crime he committed. Should move fast. DEATH PENALTY!"
According to the complaint filed against him, Saipov told investigators that he had been inspired by watching Islamic State propaganda videos on his cellphone, felt good about what he had done and asked for permission to display the Islamic State flag in his room at Bellevue Hospital Center.
Saipov was taken to Bellevue after he was shot in the abdomen by a police officer at the time of his arrest.
Trump on Thursday also repeated his the call for Congress to end the Diversity Immigrant Visa program under which Saipov entered the United States in 2010, saying on Twitter: "We need to make AMERICA SAFE!"
The diversity program, signed into law in 1990 by Republican President George H.W. Bush, was designed to provide more permanent resident visas to people from countries with low U.S. immigration rates.
One of the two criminal counts Saipov faces, violence and destruction of motor vehicles causing the deaths of eight people, carries the death penalty if the government chooses to seek it, according to acting U.S. Attorney Joon Kim.
TWEETS AND THE DEATH PENALTY
Trump's tweets calling for the death penalty before Saipov even had a chance to enter a plea to the charges he faces could work to the defendant's advantage by giving his lawyers a chance to argue that the president prejudiced potential jurors.
"The defense is sure to raise this as unfair and raising questions about a jury being able to reach an impartial verdict," said James Acker, a criminal justice professor at the State University of New York in Albany who specializes in capital punishment.